Encaustic tiles & tiling

Choosing tiles. Unless you have something already in mind, choosing tiles can be a fairly overwhelming task given the numerous options available. Given the era of the house we decided to splurge and buy reproduction encaustic tiles for our bathroom floors and try and offset the cost by  using simple white subway tiles on the walls. We sourced our encaustic tiles from Jatana Interiors, based out of Federal, not far from Byron Bay. Well worth a trip if you're looking for something special.

The tiles we chose for underneath the pot bellied stove were slate tiles. Surprisingly, this was the hardest choice. Not just for aesthetic purposes, but also because of practical reasons. We had originally chosen encaustic tiles but practicality and simplicity won out, and we ended up getting slate tiles. While possibly not as fashionably as they once were in the 80's, I think that the natural looking and less mottled slate tiles are quite attractive. They are also very practical for fire hearths as they don't show up marks as easily and are hardwearing. They would also blend well with the pressed tin / metal fireplace surround and hardwood floors and provide a sympathetic texture and colour with the other surround materials. We sourced these tiles over the internet and I'm sure they will look great once installed.

More photos to come once the installation is complete and the bathroom fittings, laundry cabinetry and pot bellied stove have been installed.

The encaustic tiles (Supplier: Jatana Interiors) we used were:

• Main bathroom - Blue Clover
• Ensuite - My Azule
• Downstairs bathroom - Black Star

Other tiles were:

• Laundry - Ultra black and ultra white 300 x 300mm matt black and white tiles laid in a checkerboard pattern (Supplier: Affordable Tiles, Burleigh)
• Wall tiles - Matt white 100x200m subway shaped tile without the bevelled edge
• Pot bellied stove - Chinese black natural split slate tiles 300x300m (Supplier: Bellstone)

Chinese slate tiles

My Azule

Blue Clover

Black star

Laundry tiles

Wall tiles

Timber skirting board sitting on the tiles

Black slate tiles for the pot bellied stove. Pressed tin yet to be painted.

Choice of two sealants: Left is the lighter of the two but we chose the darker seal to make the colours pop.

Encaustic tiles are now sealed.

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